The Sacred Heart and Roe Overturned

Courtesy of The Pillar

After Mass today, we prayed the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. My favorite line is this:

Heart of Jesus, desire of the eternal hills, pray for us

This was during adoration - I am lucky to have this offered every Friday at my church - but the prayer had a special significance with today being the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I like that line because it represents, to me, God’s very creation calling out to him in love. It is even more intimate than St. Anthony preaching to the fishes (and them listening). The hills can’t talk, walk, or even move toward Jesus - they just wait, with all their being-ness, for the One who created him.

And it was, of course, also special for contemplating the mercy contained in Jesus’s sacred heart, on this day when, after 49 years, Roe v. Wade was found to be unconstitutional, and overturned. Think of the sheer number of prayers, the hours of fasting, that led to this point. It is unfathomable. God truly works outside of time, and scoops all that up, and just like that, the world is changed.

It is surreal to read this:

Held: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.

There are many angles to consider - how each state will now outlaw or enshrine abortion in their own laws or constitution; the work ahead of pregnancy centers in supporting women; the need to create a real culture of life (and come now, what does that really mean?); the federal response; and I even wondered, how will this affect our population?

Think about it: all these years - 63 million aborted children later - we are missing people. You are missing cousins, siblings, neighbors, colleagues, you never met. And yes, our world is missing the artists, the engineers, the peacemakers, the scientists, the authors, the teachers, the coaches, the leaders, the interpreters who would have been - all lives, interrupted. And then, the surrounding lives interrupted. It is like fabric tearing, dominoes falling, as each life is connected to others.

As for me, I want there to be more Americans. This was my sincere thought today! How cool, that we are now in a time when our world will be gifted with these lives that would not have been otherwise. Can you imagine? Human lives saved and gifted directly into the world. It is no small thing.

There are a lot of things that need prayer right now, the most obvious being the further protection of life at the state level, and for pregnancy centers to have the resources they need, yes. But more: what about all the women who are scared? Those that are crying at the Supreme Court today because they genuinely believe, because of this culture’s lies, that their lives are in danger? What about the great change of heart that needs to happen so that we do genuinely value life as a society, and where does that begin? Praise God as you read about the abortion clinics closing, but pray for the women who truly believe that was their only way out. Pray there will be more of a coming together between both these sides.

This is only the beginning of something, the first right step, an opening of light into our world, there is no doubt about that.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us!